Some things happen within football circles that are scarcely believable, but supporters starting a petition for a Leeds player to be banned from football really takes the biscuit.
The issue stems from the midweek match between Leeds United and Queen’s Park Rangers, a game which Leeds won 1-0 thanks to an early goal from Crysencio Summerville.
It’s not the outcome of the game that has so incensed QPR fans but the 93rd minute simulation from Patrick Bamford which saw their keeper, Asmir Begovic, get sent off without even touching the striker.
At that late stage of the game it’s unlikely that the west Londoners would’ve got anything from the game, but the possibility exists and it’s long been said that simulation should be outlawed.
Bamford’s dive was a perfect example of how to con the referee, and it’s led to QPR Fanbase setting up the ‘Ban Patrick Bamford from Professional Football’ petition on Change.org for ‘continuously diving and simulating fouls to attempt to get his opponents sent off.’
It’s an odd example of the way in which society is heading, where someone, somewhere has to be offended by something but then takes their ire to the absolute extreme.
What it has done, however, is highlight Bamford’s cheating, and with his card marked, that could see officials paying extra attention to him in future.